Elux U-3620P scanner
06 Nov 2004I’ve acquired a new scanner today, namely, an Elux U-3620P flatbed. A quick web search reveals illiterate teenagers swearing about a lack of drivers for Windows XP (at least, I hope these people aren’t considered literate and mature in… well… any society on the planet), and a whole lot of not-much information about the actual capabilities/performance of the scanner.
Elux apparently went out of business (cause undetermined) a few years ago, so they don’t have a useful website full of specifications which I can check, either. The whinging would suggest that these scanners are slow and deliver poor image quality, but I’m not compelled to believe them without seeing this thing working first. Which, incidentally, can’t happen just yet, because the only cable I have which’d connect it nicely happens to be packed away in a box taped shut.
Speaking of cables, though, I find it most curious that this device does not have a visible DC power inlet! I’ve been told to “look harder” by various people… but, at this stage, I seriously can’t see it at all! If it weren’t all single piece construction, I’d take it apart to prove it… that said, it is single piece constructed, and I’d rather wait until I had a cable to prove or disprove my point rather than break it trying to discover before-hand.
This is all based on the premise that there is some form of Linux driver support for the damn thing… if not, I’d presume there are Windows 9x drivers out there, somewhere, but I’d really rather not. One of the reasons I suspect it (the scanner) was performing slowly for aforementioned illiterates, is that they were running on a system with a parallel port which made everything grind to a halt when used. This isn’t a problem on my main desktop, but on some of the 9x boxes, it certainly would be!
I’ll see if I can hunt down a spare parallel cable some time this week, and then give it a whirl with XSane (or *shudder* Twain). Worst case scenario, I’m sure there’s something crazy I can do with the lights inside a scanner… we shall see.